


It's Between You and the World

by SimonBlackquillEatsASandwich



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angst, But mostly angst, M/M, Unhappy Ending, Yakuza, but also there will be some fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-05 02:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5357384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimonBlackquillEatsASandwich/pseuds/SimonBlackquillEatsASandwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine Daiki works at an elite government agency designed to rid Tokyo of the yakuza. Kagami Taiga is the son of a prominent mob boss from Hokkaido. Aomine certainly has no qualms when he's assigned to kill him. The balance will have to tip soon enough, but in which direction?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Meeting Not Written in the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on ffn with an extremely similar name. Then, I deleted it because I wanted to pre-write it before I posted it, but it's kinda of just been sitting there since then and I still have plans for the idea, so ah here it is? Updates should come about every two weeks, but things (mostly school) happen, so it could get a little over that sometimes. Thank you for reading!

Aomine Daiki stepped out of the mandatory debriefing with a sense of clarity he had not held when he walked in just an hour or two before. It would be his chance. His big break. His opportunity to be someone, to help people, to repay the organization that had done everything for him.

He was holding a file, and one of the papers had begun to slip out. In small but legible print, ‘Target: Kagami Taiga, son of yakuza Branch 6-Hokkaido Prefecture Kagami Hisato, age 18, believed to be’ was visible, the file covering the rest of the sentence and anything else on the page. Daiki shoved the paper back in, taking a deep breath before beginning the short walk back to his quarters. It would be his chance.

.........................................................................................................................................................

A shrill beep filled the sparse apartment, giving Kagami the excuse he needed to retreat from his homework for a few minutes to answer the phone. He would've gladly picked up without a second thought, but instead hesitated a bit when he didn't recognize the phone number. Even if it was probably fine, well, he'd learned enough from the last time to know that picking up wasn't always the best option.

The third year waited until the phone stopped ringing, hoping the answering machine would pick up his slack, but instead the infernal device began to chirp again. Against his better judgement, he picked up the phone, for fear that they wouldn't leave him alone if he didn't answer.

A voice, decidedly female, replaced the sounds as he brought the phone up to his ear. “May I speak to the parents of Kagami Taiga, eto... Kagami Hisato and Kagami Mikuru? This is Kozue Chiasa of Sophia University. I would like to arrange a meeting time to discuss the payment plan that was requested.”

Taiga loosened up a bit. He had, after all, requested a meeting with someone from Sophia University, but what that had to do with his parents, he did not know. 

“Kagami Taiga speaking. I apologize, Kozue-san, but my parents live in Hokkaido. However, I would love to arrange a meeting with you if possible.” Taiga began to pace a bit, twirling the phone cord around his index finger as he spoke.

“Hokkaido?” the woman asked thoughtfully, and Taiga was not all too fond of the question that came next. “You live alone then, Kagami-san?”

“Well, yes,” he began a bit unsurely, before adding with more bite than necessary, “but as you can see from the letter I sent you, I'm a legal adult, so I don't see it as a necessity for my parents to be present.” He paused again, eyes flicking to the calendar he had taped haphazardly to the wall. “Does Saturday at 2:30 work?”

“Of course, Kagami-san, I apologize for prying. 2:30 on Saturday will be fine. Sophia University looks forward to welcoming you this April.” Her voice had evened out again, becoming harder to find emotion in than the inquisitive tone she had just been using.

“I appreciate it, Kozue-san. Goodbye.” Before anything else could be said, Taiga pressed the end call button and tried to settle the unease that had begun to make his heart beat a little faster than was the norm for a man of his age.

.........................................................................................................................................................

Daiki handed his ticket to the airport security officer, a bit miffed at how much money a freaking flight to Tokyo cost. Akita, where the agency was, was only a few hours away, and yet his superiors had had to fork over 40,000 yen for the trip. It wasn't like they minded much, though. He was known to get the job done quickly and cleanly, so it was always worth it for them in the end.

Committing the whole fifteen page folder to memory had been rather tedious, but if he brought it with him and airport security saw it... Well, things wouldn't go so well from there.

“Tageuchi Hirofume-san?” the man questioned, raising an eyebrow at the name that the ticket had been bought under.

“Yes, that's me,” the bluenette answered without even half a second of hesitation. 

The rather short officer, sufficiently convinced nothing suspicious was going on, waved him through the gate and metal detector which did not go off as he walked through.

All that was left was to wait for his plane arrived, which he noticed with a slight scowl wouldn't happen for another half an hour. Daiki figured he might as well spend the time wisely, and go back over the information he'd learned about his target. It wouldn't do to forget anything, even a small detail.

According to intel, the man had just turned eighteen, close enough to Daiki in age, and was a third year at Seirin Highschool. Decent enough grades, but nothing to marvel over, and known mostly to stay away from extracurricular activities and his peers in general. He lived alone in an apartment not far from Shibuya, while his parents lived together in Hokkaido. His father led the mob there, but Kagami Hisato's health had been waning lately, and despite Kagami Taiga's rather young age, he'd already been almost fifty when his son was born. His mother, ironically enough, was a lawyer. 

With the way things were looking, Kagami Hisato would die within the month, and logically Kagami Taiga would succeed him as leader of the Hokkaido Prefecture yakuza, hence him being targeted. Daiki was to find Taiga, befriend him enough so that it wouldn't be considered strange for him to stop by the other's apartment every so often. When Hisato did kick the bucket, he would strike. To have their leader and his successor dead would certainly send the yakuza into disarray, creating an opening for the agency to strike the weakened organization. But by the time that all happened, Daiki would be back in Akita, already getting a debriefing for his next assignment.

He made no cliche vow to get the job done no matter the cost, because he knew he was skilled enough to finish it easily enough. A piece of cake, really. And he'd be regarded as a hero when he returned back home.

A voice came over the loudspeaker, calling his flight to begin boarding, and Daiki began to stand at a leisurely pace, feeling no urgency to get on the plane.

.........................................................................................................................................................

Daiki stepped out of the airport and ducked into the nearest cab, stating the address of the apartment he'd be staying at before beginning to tap on the window as the driver accelerated the car.

“You said 24 Kaoruka, right?” the man questioned absentmindedly, keeping his hands on the wheel but turning slightly to glance at the bluenette sitting in the back.

“No,” he responded, mostly without emotion but with a slight twinge of annoyance so as to get his point across. “37 Kaoruka.”

“Hm, sorry about that,” started the driver conversationally, apparently not getting the hint that Daiki wasn't exactly in the mood to talk. “I've been a little out of it lately. Last week my cat died and my friend's been hounding me for a bit o' cash I owe him-” It was at that point that Daiki just began answering sympathetic sounds but listened to not a word the man was saying. 

Instead, he went over his target's features in his head: tall, muscular, crimson eyes, and two-toned red and black hair. Kagami Taiga wouldn't exactly be hard to find in a crowd, but he also wouldn't go down without a fight if he was attacked. Well, Daiki thought, he'd befriend the guy first and then worry about the attacking. 

As they neared Seirin Highschool, which they would have to pass on the way to his apartment, (not a coincidence, planned by the agency like almost every other thing about his trip to Tokyo) he perked up a bit, still ignoring the other man, but instead ‘casually’ looking out the window. Class must still have been in session, because Daiki did not see any flashes of red hair nor did he notice any other students milling about outside.

“You get it, right?” the can driver questioned rhetorically. Either his voiced had risen exponentially in volume or Daiki had inadvertently opened bis ears a bit, but either way he heard. “I mean, this job is so stressful. Do you know what it's like to have so much pressure on you at work?”

Daiki almost outwardly scoffed at that, but thankfully he had enough self control to settle with a small eye roll that the driver missed as he had fortunately returned most of his attention to the road.

“So, what brings you to Tokyo?” the man inquired curiously. “I see you've got a bit of luggage there.”

“Work. Also here to... Spend a bit of time with someone.” It was true, after all.

“Oo, a girlfriend?” the driver prompted teasingly, and Daiki wanted to laugh at him for two reasons: his persistence despite the passenger's clear want for privacy and lack of conversation, and that he thought Daiki would have a girlfriend. 

He made no move to answer, looking back out the window and shrugging slightly, and it seemed like the invasive cab driver finally gave up, because the small talk ceased and again Daiki was alone with his thoughts.

.........................................................................................................................................................

Taiga finally stumbled out of his school at around 6 PM after a failed studying attempt that resulted in him falling asleep in the library. He realized disgruntledly that he had walked to school that morning because he had been feeling more energetic than usual, which meant there was no way to go back other than the way he had come. Maybe a four mile walk had seemed appealing to him that morning, but Taiga from the present would have honestly rather stapled his eyelids shut at the moment.

Other students were trickling out with him after various club activities, something he had always had no interest in, but he did not glance at them even as a few called his name. 

One call, though, got louder even as he picked up his pace, so he slowed down a bit to allow the other boy to catch up with him if it was truly something important.

“Kagami-kun!” the nasally voice shouted, coming closer and closer until the redhead wished he would just get to the point already.

“Ka...gami-kun,” the boy repeated one last time, now significantly out of breath as he finally matched Taiga's stride. 

“Oi, what is it...” Taiga paused, trying to find his classmate's name somewhere in his brain, but failing considerably, “Fukihara-kun?”

Fukihara, or whatever his name actually was, blushed slightly the way Taiga had seen the first-year girls do it whenever he had a conversation with them, despite the shorter male next to him being in the same grade.

“Oh, um, it's Furihata actually?” the boy, Furihata, tried to say but it came out as more of a question than anything else. “Well, anyways, you left your notebook in the library, so I brought it for you.”

“Ah, thanks, I was wondering where that went,” Taiga mused, not having even noticed it was gone, trying to be cordial despite his patience for people wearing quite thin.

Furihata nodded, probably muttering something or other, before turning around and bolting in the other direction. Taiga raised a single split eyebrow but did not make any move to turn around and look back at the brunette.

Kagami Taiga was thoroughly done with people of all kinds. However, Kagami realized as he practically stomped the way back to his apartment, people of all kinds seemed to be the opposite of thoroughly done with Kagami Taiga.

He did not slow his pace as he had for Furihata when he heard a deep, “Sir!” come from behind him, instead opting to pointedly stare at a building a few hundred yards away from him.

Taiga expected the man to be unable to match his speed and give up on whatever he had been trying to communicate to him. The yelling stopped, and he breathed a sigh of relief, but practically tripped and fell on his face when he felt and abrupt tap on his shoulder.  
“What the hell do you want?!” Taiga growled, whirling around and getting in the face of the person who was standing directly behind him.

He had not really been expecting such an irritatingly beautiful face, though. The man was practically the night sky, with his dark skin and abnormally colored navy hair, though Taiga was one to to talk with the red and black ombré his own hair formed. The sudden bluenette had wide eyes, and a slightly nervous smile, and sounds were coming out of said nervous smile, so Taiga tuned back in, not wanting to miss a word of what the man said despite his anger from only a few moments ago.

“Er, sorry to bother you, but I'm kind of new here, and I haven't seen a single person my age. I was wondering if you knew some place where I could hang out and maybe meet a few? You look like the type of guy who would know his way around the city.” Taiga would've noticed that it was Tokyo and there were plenty of people their age around, but instead he put on his own smile, perhaps a few notches too bright, and responded.

“Heh, well I'm not exactly known for being the most social...” Taiga began, “but I'm sure I could show you a place or two. If you want.”

“Well, duh,” answered the other man, rolling his eyes playfully. “I don't think I would've asked if I didn't want you to, idiot.”

“Hey, I'm not the idiot here!” he yelled in response, having regained some of his earlier ferocity. “Well, shouldn't we at least know each other's real names before we move on to cutesy pet names?”

The stranger whose name he still did not know chuckled at what was probably a pathetic joke, before deadpanning, “I'm Aomine Daiki. You are?”

“Kagami, Kagami Taiga. Nice to meet you, Aomine Daiki.”


	2. Withholding Information

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! This next week is going to be pretty busy, but I was free today, so I wanted to get the next chapter done. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

It was not the wonderful future that Aomine had dreamt for himself, taken as a given, when he was a small boy. The life he was living was messy, dangerous, grueling at first, and came with no personal life. He had what many would consider to be little to no free will, but he had never thought that to be the truth. His job description was literally to do (kill) what (who) they told him, but Aomine got to decide how he carried out orders, and that was good enough for him. 

In all honesty, Aomine figured that he was probably lucky based off of the way some people had grown up. His childhood had not been the disturbing tragedy many would expect from someone like that. There were no gangs that had come and murdered his parents, in fact last he had checked they were living comfortably somewhere in Nagano prefecture. He had not been born with a disease that would kill him before his twentieth birthday. Really, all he had to do was not eff up a job too much and his life would go on for a while. 

As he studied the man sitting in front of him, pasting on a convincing smile and mouth forming friendly words, he saw nothing special. Of course his features were peculiar but with the people he had grown up with, oddly colored hair was no shock. Aomine was vaguely amused by the fact that he had been brought to a bar when he knew for a fact his target was not legally old enough to drink. 

“So... You come here often?” he was asked suddenly, and for once the laughter that came out was not part of some ulterior motive. Granted, it would probably help his cause overall, but he didn't have to work very hard for it to come out.

“No, idiot,” Aomine bit back, albeit jokingly. “Are your deaf? I thought I told you I was new around here.”

“Mm,” Kagami shrugged noncommittally. “You're the idiot, idiot. Just making sure you were paying attention. You seem a little far away.”

Aomine laughed again, any sense of internal happiness dissolved. He did not show it outwardly, chuckling and picking at his sleeve absentmindedly, but maybe his tone was colder than it had been a minute or two before. The man was more perceptive than he had estimated. He would need to be more careful.

“Nah, I'm good,” he spoke calmly, running a hand through his hair and leaning back a bit so as to give off an air of serenity. “So, have you always lived in Tokyo, or...?”

“No. I grew up in Hokkaido, actually. Riveting, I know,” he finished, raising an eyebrow as Aomine let out an almost imperceptible yawn.

“Yeah, you're pretty boring.” He was tempted to leave it at that, enjoying the immediate sputtering that came from his target's mouth, but he took pity on the guy and amended his statement. “Kidding, Bakagami, kidding. It's not you, I just didn't get much sleep last night.”

Again Kagami raised a single bizarre eyebrow, and Aomine noted it as something that was probably a habit for him. “What is it that could possible be troubling the Great Aomine?” 

Aomine rolled his eyes but offered no explanation, and Kagami figured he would be better off just changing the subject. “So what about you? I mean, where are you from?”  
“I am of the Shadow Realm,” the bluenette offered dryly, giving him a chance to witness firsthand the ‘intelligence’ of his target, whose eyes widened and mouth gaped open at the statement. “Idiot, you should see the look on your face. Born and raised in Akita, if you must know.”

“And you said I was boring,” Kagami mused, leaning back with a short scoff.

All around them people buzzed, discussing their own woes and joys lives, but neither man cared to pay attention. They each took a generous sip of bitter drinks, using the lull in the conversation as a chance to gather their thoughts. 

The strangeness of his newfound companion dawned on Kagami for a moment, in both the way he had been approached and the nature of their terse conversation. He would have liked to know more about Aomine, to judge whether or not he could be trusted, but despite his sparking of the conversation he seemed not to be a very forthcoming person, and Kagami knew from personal experience how quickly friendships or relationships could be shut down if one pried into business that was not their own.

Still, he was not going to offer up bundles of personal information unless Aomine proved he could be trusted with it. It seemed that for the time being they would both be kept mostly in the dark about each other.

All conversation long Aomine's phone had been buzzing softly in his pocket, no doubt his idiot roommates from back at the agency complaining about this or that. So when a similar noise enveloped them, he was not particularly concerned, but he realized after a second or two that it was not coming from him, but from the other side of the table. 

Kagami's mouth tightened as his eyes ran quickly over the caller I.D., and he put up a single finger in apology before abruptly leaving the table. Aomine spotted only one word on the screen before the phone and its owner were out of his view: ‘Okaa-san.’

.........................................................................................................................................................

 

Many thoughts flittered through Kagami's head as he answered the phone, but one was dominant. He had known this call would come, but he hadn't thought it would arrive so soon. He wanted more time. Even a few days would do.

“Mom?” he answered, voice breaking ever so slightly. “Is he alright? What happened? Is everything okay?”

“Your father?” she spoke without greeting, but Kagami did not mind at a time like that, ever, really. It was just the way their relationship worked. “Calm down, Taiga. He's doing fine today. That's not what I called about. But... If you're so worried, why haven't you come to visit?”

“Mom!” he repeated, this time with a strange mix of relief and exasperation.

“Alright, alright,” she relented with a short laugh. “But you really should come up here soon. He wants to see you, even if he's too stubborn to say that to you. Either way, I'm sure you've realized by now that you'll have to take over soon enough, right?”

He sighed loudly into the phone, wanting nothing more by this point than to hang up and return to the bar and the intrigued that came with it. “Tradition, upholding the family values, yes, you've explained it to me plenty of times. I still don't see why Nakamura-san can't 'uphold the family values.’ He's been Dad's second in command since before I was born. I'm sure he has enough experience to run Hokkaido branch better than I can.”

“Your father wants it to be you,” his mother reminded him. “Don't even try questioning it; when has his reasoning ever made sense?”

She was right, at least about that bit, so he tactfully changed the topic of conversation. “We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Why did you call me, anyway? And since it doesn't seem to be anything important, can we make this quick? I'm kind of busy right now.”

“Taiga!” she reprimanded, in the exact same tone she had used when he was a small child. “I taught you better than to speak to your mother like that! I've been in contact with Tatsuya, and he says you barely talk to anyone but him. When are you going to get a boyfriend? I accepted it when you told me you were gay, but that doesn't mean you can use it as an excuse to be by yourself all the time.”

“MOM!” he screeched, echoing the beginning of the conversation. Thankfully, the bathroom he had took sheltered in was almost deserted, so he attracted no attention. He hung up the phone without saying goodbye, shoving it back into his pocket and allowing himself a few seconds to calm down.

“Well this has been lovely,” he began with a twinge of sarcasm once he found their table. “But I think maybe I should go down.” All of his desire to talk had vanished with the ridiculous conversation with his mom.

“Wait,” Aomine answered without hesitation. Kagami stilled, not having expected any resistance from Aomine. “You look upset all of a sudden. Was that call really that bad, Bakagami?”

Kagami was silent for a second, weighing his options. He figured talking about it would help, but at the same time he had vowed to be secretive with this man. Maybe he just wouldn't give any of the important details. How much harm could really be done, right?

“Not really,” he answered vaguely, shrugging his shoulders a bit. “Just, my dad isn't doing too hot, and my mom's been nagging me left and right.”

“I'm sorry to hear that,” Aomine responded, feigning concern and successfully bringing down a wall or two. “Is he going to be okay?”

“No,” Kagami responding quietly as retook his seat with a short grunt. “Doctors say he's got less than a month until he kicks the bucket. I know that I should go see him, but-” He cut himself off, closing up again and letting his eyes drift back down to the floor.

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to,” Aomine said sympathetically. Internally, though, he was practically brimming with joy. It seemed that his task would be easier than he thought after all.

.........................................................................................................................................................

In Akita, a woman was skimming over an email with a disapproving grunt here and there. She had expected more to be done already by what was supposed to be her best agent. He had always been one to carry out assassinations in unconventional ways, but still, she could not help but worry. Time was of the essence. When Kagami Hisato's life drifted away, another would have to go with it. If Aomine had not gotten on the son's good side by then, the plan would have to be delayed, destroyed even. She answered the email bluntly and hit the power button on her computer, for there were more important tasks to be completed.


	3. The Era of Technology

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you guys like this one, sorry it took so long. No promises, but there might be another update this week as I'm currently on winter break. Thank you for reading!

There was something inside of him that he had always liked to ignore. Maybe it wasn't just inside of him. Maybe it was visible to other people. He wouldn't know. He had never spent enough time with anyone to know what they saw him as. Regardless, it was there. It was not joy. It was not love. It was not success. It was not hope or honesty or fulfillment. This dot, first small and then all-encompassing, told him that he was not destined for greatness, that he would never amount to more than he already was. It told him that he would never be anything more than a little red headed boy with a scary face and a festering disease of the mind. 

He was no longer a little boy, though. Kagami had learned to suppress his fear, to control it, and yet at night when it was dark and quiet but his mind prevented anything from being silent, he wondered if his life would someday mean something to someone, or if he would just continue to be a pawn, meaningless in everything except for his role of keeping someone else's dreams from fading and crumbling into nothing. 

However, at that very moment the sun was pouring its very essence into the light it produced, and external sounds from the streets below were filtering up towards his ears. Worded simply, the suppression was working and there was more on his mind.

Exams were coming up. If he did badly, his father would murder him, and yet the history textbook in front of him made about as much sense as if the teenager had been reading the book in Polish. Kagami almost had the nerve to question the cause of his waning focus, almost being the key word, because every time he tried to study one of his textbook's diagrams, the soldiers had been curiously blue haired, blue eyed, grinning in a way that somehow managed to be both condescending and playful. 

Kagami was older now. He had a new festering disease of the mind. As it had seemed the most accurate, he decided to simply call the disease its given name, Aomine Daiki. He closed his eyes and saw the smirk, opened them and heard the not quite joyous laughter it produced. 

They had parted on a good note, and yet still Kagami was left wondering if they would see each other again. Aomine was a difficult man to read, and he cursed himself for hours afterwards because he had been weak and immediately broken his vow not to give up any information. 

But talking to the bluenette was like taking the first sip of water in a year. Growing up, into adolescence, and everything until a few days earlier, he had been isolated. He was never allowed to bring a friend home to hang out, was never allowed to go over someone else's house. There was never anyone to talk to but his parents, and despite being far from average, he was a normal enough teenager not to spill his heart out to them.

And thus the simple act of expressing his feelings had been turned into an almost impossible act. Even when talking to Aomine, letting something out for the first time, he was vague, almost detached, and had done everything in his power to show as little of his emotions as possible. 

In the end, phone numbers were exchanged, but it had been three days, and not a single message had been sent or received. He admitted that it may have been partly due to his tendency to act like a preteen girl in his methods of communicating with a guy he liked. And yet in the same manner, Kagami was a bit worried by the fact the other man had also made no move to communicate with him or set up another meeting. 

Maybe it was vain, but he had at first gotten the sense that Aomine had also liked him, at least a little bit. Now, as time went on, it seemed more and more like his counterpart had only become a counterpart for lack of any sort of better option. 

.........................................................................................................................................................

Despite his best efforts, Aomine too was unsettled by the lack of correspondence between them. If there had been any doubt in the beginning of the conversation that the target was at least beginning to trust him, it was all whisked away at the end. Naturally, he thought, this should have led to some sort of communication between them, and yet his phone had remained eerily silent. This meant that he would have to send the first text, which might have been embarrassing, but it was infinitely better than letting the connection fizzle out, failing his assignment, and giving up one of the biggest opportunities he had ever received. 

Aomine typed a messaged, deleted it, typed a new one, sighed, and let the cycle repeat a few more times. Finally, against his better judgement, he composed one, sent it, and then proceeded to cringe over how idiotically it read. 

.................................................................................................................................................

Kagami's thoughts were hushed by the familiar sound of his cellphone buzzing against the table, and any attempts to decipher the history textbook were immediately abandoned when he saw who the text was from.

Aomine Daiki (10:07 PM): Talk to me, Baka, I'm bored.

The flustered redhead took a minute to breathe until he sounded a bit less like a dying pig, and responded as wittily as he could in the moment, which was granted not very witty. 

Kagami Taiga (10:10 PM): If you're so desperate to talk to me, Ahomine, you should be nicer. 

The response was immediate, fast enough that Kagami was genuinely impressed by how quickly the other was able to type.

Aomine Daiki (10:10 PM): Sorry, Princess, didn't realize it was so easy to hurt your feelings. I'll be more careful next time, so forgive me, okay? ;)

It took longer to recover enough to respond this time. In fact, he worried the other would think he was secretly a sloth with how long it took him to type the simple sentence.

Kagami Taiga (10:15 PM): I guess, since you asked so nicely....

Aomine Daiki (10:16 PM): Wow, you're easy to win over too. Bakagami, I think I've got you all figured out.

Kagami Taiga (10:19 PM): Funny joke, aho. You don't know the first thing about me. What's my favorite color? 

Aomine Daiki (10:19 PM): Blue?  
Kagami Taiga (10:20 PM): Hilarious.

Aomine Daiki (10:20 PM): Mine's always been red.

Kagami Taiga (10:32 PM): Whatever, idiot. Find someone else to entertain you. I have to go study.

A more truthful explanation would have included the fact that this new information had incapacitated him enough to drop his phone on the floor and leave it there for a good twelve minutes, but he decided that there had already been enough truth telling for the week. 

.................................................................................................................................................  
Briskly making his way off of a plane, a man went over inside of his head the details of a 'borrowed' file. His circumstances echoed that of his companion's from a few days ago, but their motivations were quite different. His companion had been sent to kill, he to protect. Mostly, though, the man just wished for himself to be nothing at all like the idiot. 

To outsiders, he most likely looked emotionless. He always did. By some miracle, the same was almost true on the inside as well. The man did not allow himself to worry about the outcome, or mourn over a recently fallen comrade. He simply found his sparse luggage and hailed a cab, having also 'borrowed' the address of what housing complex he was set to arrive at.  
.................................................................................................................................................

Being a temporary residence, Aomine's apartment was fairly empty. He spent as much time as he could outside of it. The apartment was quite cramped in size, and nothing interesting ever went down in there unless you counted him sleeping, or taking a shower. It seemed that the agency had splurged on a plane ticket for him yet dropped him in a dump when he finally arrived in Tokyo. Because of this, he spent as much time outside of it as he could. Not only was spending time in his apartment depressing, it also wasted a lot of possible opportunities to get farther in his mission. There was only a month to become Kagami Taiga's trusted friend, and it seemed from their three days of silence that it would not be an easy feat.

Leaving in a desperate attempt to actually do something, be it going for a run, having a meal, or possibly just analyzing new information, Aomine practically yanked open the door, pausing when he heard a grumble of protest from what seemed to be the floor.

“Aomine-kun, it is rude to push doors into people,” the floor complained, and it took Aomine a second or two more to realize that the floor had not suddenly come alive, but rather that there was a small person now splayed out upon it.

“Tetsu, what the hell are you doing here?” he questioned in what could be taken as a rude manner, but mostly he was just trying to wrap his head around the current situation. He held out his hand, helping Kuroko get up, and waited for an answer.

“Riko-san sent me,” was the smooth reply. “She worried that Aomine-kun was not getting enough done, so she ordered me out here to assist Aomine-kun.”

Kuroko had always been the resident expert at both lying to people and reading them like a book, yet Aomine had never been too shabby at this himself. His multiple years of experience were telling him that this explanation was false, but he had no proof or good reason to bring it up, so he kept quiet about it for the moment.

“To assist me?” Aomine scoffed, leaning forward slightly with a fake amused look. “I've got this all under control, Tetsu, no assistance needed. You should go home and babysit the other idiots until there's a mission for you.”

Kuroko seemed to recoil at the very suggestion, stepping backwards and even letting out a sound that was vaguely reminiscent of disgust, an emotion. “No can do, Aomine-kun. Unlike you I listen to orders. I have been informed that my services may be required here.”  
With that, Kuroko pulled a handgun out of what looked to be his back pocket, and put it back before anyone except for a now spluttering Aomine had a chance to see it. 

“Tetsu! Idiot, you can't just take things like that out in public! And they say I'm the reckless one, but you're over here brandishing a weapon in the middle of the hallway!”

“What weapon, Aomine-kun?” Kuroko asked innocently, having mastered his technique long ago. A slight head cock, a widening of the eyes, and he could have anyone he wanted practically wrapped around his little finger.

“Yeah, yeah, aho, don't give me that. You know exactly what weapon, so shut your mouth. Are you coming in or are you going to stand out there all day?”

It seemed that the plans for an outing would have to be postponed, but it was almost worth it if the idea he had just thought up would work. Kuroko let his mouth downturn slightly but showed no other signs of protest, and with that they both entered into the room. Closing the door behind him, Aomine pulled out his phone for what was probably the eightieth time that day and sent a final message, this time not worrying about the awkward wording.

Aomine Daiki (11:05 PM): Still studying, Bakagami? Come over. We'll have company this time. Address is 76 Kankiken.


End file.
